This invention relates to a method for impregnating porous abrasive elements with a reactive solution for use in distressing fabrics and, in particular, to be utilized in a tumbling environment with denim fabric.
In recent years, the fashion industry has seized upon the use of cotton denim fabrics as fashionable materials. While the history of blue denim fabrics has coincided, to a degree, with that of the rural areas of this country, the popularity of garments made from this fabric has extended throughout the country. Since these fabrics have been traditionally stiff, pretreatment of fabricated garments to achieve a softening as well as a prefading indicative of long term use have been found to be commercially beneficial to the marketer of the garment. In addition, a substantial market has been created for intentionally distressed, prefaded and softened denim garments. In order to pretreat or precondition these garments to an acceptable distressed look in what are otherwise new garments, the industry has sought to develop low cost and reliable preconditioning processes.
Initial interest in the industry was directed to what is called a prewashing process, which preshrinks the garment and is conducted in water, to utilize the well-known tendency of cotton fabrics to change dimension. The next step in the preconditioning sequence has been the introduction of stone-washing utilizing rocks in a tumbling apparatus to, in effect, prewear the garment in a random or unpredictable pattern. This process utilized a soft stone, typically a volcanic such as pumice. Since the fashion industry is never static, attempts were made to introduce additional processing steps which would further distinguish garments so treated from those in vogue during the prior season. As a result, the industry has recently introduced denim fabric garments which have been subjected to a rifling process. This process combines the abrasive action of the stone-washing process, along with the introduction of a reactive solution such as a bleach. Typically, conventional chlorine bleaches, wellknown in the industry, have been utilized.
At present, a substantial portion of the pretreated denim fabrics are subjected to a rifling process utilizing a porous volcanic with abrasive characteristics and which has been sprayed, coated or otherwise provided with a surface-region infusion of chlorine bleach. The operating lifetime of the volcanic rock is limited since it is subjected to continuous tumbling until it disintegrates sufficiently so that the fines in the tumbling machinery detract from the abrasive action of the solids and the mass of rocks decreases so as to cease abrading the fabric. In addition, the amount of bleach provided with each of the porous rocks is limited to the surface or near surface environment so that as erosion of the volcanic rock takes place, the amount of chlorine available to contact the fabric has greatly diminished and the desired result is not achieved. As a result, the operating cycle for the present processes is unduly limited.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved porous abrasive element for use in the preconditioning of fabrics. Also, the invention is directed to the increase of the amount of bleaching agent or conditioning material contained in the abrasive elements so as to increase the time interval between replacement thereof. Another objective of the invention is to utilize conditioning materials which are more effective than the conventional chlorine bleaches so that the resultant distressing is more visually noticeable in the treated garment. The present invention is further concerned with a process for providing abrasive elements of increased effectiveness and longer operating lifetime by utilizing an operating process which is easy to operate, low in cost and possesses a high capacity for treatment.